Cast

Storyline

Director Sundar C and Vishal announced that they would work together on a project in January 2012, and it was revealed that Vishal would portray a triple role in the film.After denying reports that the female lead role was first offered to Shruti Haasan, Sundar C hinted that they were set to sign on Hansika Motwani, but her busy schedule left her unavailable to commit dates for the project.Titled Madha Gaja Raja' after Vishal's three characters, Karthika Nair eventually joined the team to portray the role during April 2012.The film subsequently began production in Chennai during early May 2012, with a song shot featuring Vishal and Santhanam alongside Sadha, who was revealed to be make a guest appearance in an item number. Sundar C then chose to shoot some further scenes with Sadha and make her appearance last longer than just for a song sequence.However soon after production began, Sundar C chose to alter the script, with the new version having Vishal portray only a single character, with two leading actresses instead of one. Disappointed with this development, Karthika Nair left the project stating that the role of the lead actress had been significantly diminished as result of the change of story.Taapsee Pannu signed on to replace Karthika, but soon afterwards left the project citing date clashes with her commitments for the promotional activity of her Hindi film.Varalaxmi Sarathkumar was consequently drafted in after working producers Gemini Film Circuit during their previous venture Podaa Podi (2012), while Anjali was selected for the second leading female role. Gayatri Rao joined the film's cast to portray Santhanam's love interest, while actors Nithin Sathya and Sadagoppan Ramesh were selected to portray Vishal's friends in the film. The team subsequently began another schedule with the new storyline in Palani during June 2012.

The team moved to Jaipur during August 2012 to complete another schedule, while Vishal revealed that the title now referred to the agitated state of Lord Ganesha rather than the names of his characters, stating that "Gaja Raja" could be literally translated as fury. During the particular schedule, Vishal suffered an injury when filming a fight scene and was forced to take a week's break from working.The film's shoot moved to Hyderabad during September 2012, with Arya joining the team's cast to shoot for a guest appearance. Arya had flown in from Chennai and completed his work on the film within a single day. The team planned to shoot a song sequence in China, but eventually flew to Australia to record the sequences. By October 2012, it was revealed that the film was complete and Sundar C was putting "finishing touches" to the project.